"It was kind of odd to see 100-plus cross during the storm itself. That in itself is pretty rare to see. It took us by surprise," said Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) spokesperson Chris Olivarez. 

According to Olivarez, migrants were guided by smugglers across the Rio Grande in Starr County and were left there without any protection. The group consisted of mainly families from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. 

Separately, smugglers are exposing hundreds of migrants to high risk by sending them through a desolate mountainous area east of Tijuana to cross to California, reports Salvador Rivera of Border Report. 

"The terrain is very rugged, it’s mountainous and you also have to take into account the wildlife in the middle of nowhere," said Angel Moreno, U.S. Border Patrol spokesperson in the zone. "The area is becoming more dangerous for our agents, too." 

Moreno said that two criminal organizations "are at war for smuggling routes" in San Diego, which is resulting in bandits preying on migrants holding them at gunpoint to rob them.  

We’re pausing the Daily on Fridays this month, so we’ll be back Monday. Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Clara Villatoro, the Forum’s strategic communications manager, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Ashling Lee, Jillian Clark and Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].  

GOP DEBATE – In the first GOP debate last night there was almost no mention of immigration "just a steady drumbeat of menace", write Miriam Jordan and Jennifer Medina of The New York Times. But as Forum’s president and CEO Jennie Murray said early this week, "Americans favor solutions to harsh and unworkable policies...[T]he debate season offers candidates the opportunity to offer solutions instead of negative rhetoric."   

SHRINKING LABOR FORCE – A recent study confirms that immigrants can boost the U.S. working-age population and halt the shrinking workforce given the country’s falling birthrate and the retirement of Baby Boomers, writes Stuart Anderson for Forbes. "Now and in the future, the U.S. will still need workers, and it risks not having enough of them... [A] shrinking working-age population can easily lead to economic stagnation or even falling living standards for a nation," writes Madeline Zavodny in her study for the National Foundation of American Policy (NFAP). 

‘EXPOSED TO EVERYTHING' – Despite a new temporary outdoor shelter in the city of Matamoros, Mexico, finding adequate space for migrants remains a challenge, reports Valerie Gonzalez of the Associated Press. "We are here, and we feel safer than how we were living over there exposed to everything," said Luisa Hernandez, a Venezuelan migrant who described being kidnapped in Mexico. While some migrants have relocated to the new space, others remain wary because they fear being deported from the shelter.  

A LEGAL PATHWAY — Two years after arriving in the U.S. as a refugee, Yalda Royan reflects on the uncertainty and challenges faced by herself and other Afghan evacuees in an article for Slate. Royan highlights the Afghan Adjustment Act as a potential solution to provide a legal pathway to permanent residence for Afghan evacuees. Separately, Alejandro Figueroa of The Ohio Newsroom tells the story of Afghan refugee Eltaf and his family, who now reside in Ohio and struggles with uncertainty given their temporary immigration status.